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- [00:02]
Don Wildman
London in the 1620s is expanding at an extraordinary pace. With a population surpassing 200,000 at the turn of the century. The city's houses are linked not only by roads, but by elm piped water mains and licensed hackney carriages, early predecessors to modern taxis. London's streets teem with a diverse mix of people from across the British Isles and beyond. While the poor crowd into makeshift dwellings built wherever space allows. The wealthy move through the city in French tailored clothing of indigo dyed fabrics and silk stockings. Their meals are seasoned with pepper imported by the East India Company arriving at the docks in Blackwall. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, many of their compatriots who set sail from this very stretch of the Thames over the past two decades struggle to survive. Numbering barely a thousand, they face constant threats. Reprisals from Native Americans whose land they occupy, disease bred from a lack of infrastructure and the ever present risk of starvation. Hello and welcome. I'm Don Wildman and this is American History hit. In this third episode of our Jamestown series, we're taking a closer look at what it was actually like to live in Jamestown. Who was in control? How did they keep the peace in the fort? And how did they resolve the ever present challenge of creating and then maintaining a workforce? To find out, I am joined by Willie Balderson, Director of Living History and Historic Trades at Jamestown Rediscovery. Greetings, Willie. Nice to be with you.
- [01:46]
Willie Balderson
So happy to be with you.
- [01:48]
Don Wildman
In the previous two episodes we covered the birth of Jamestown and then we discussed the relations with indigenous populations. We are going to talk in this episode about more of the day to day operations of the place. How did they begin it, how did they run it? And then what happened at the end. This all happens. What I'm talking about, over what period of time exactly?
- [02:09]
Willie Balderson
Well, tremendous misconception. I know we're going to get to that discussion is that Jamestown was a failure, that it didn't last, but it's established in 1607 and Jamestown, the actual town on Jamestown island, will remain the capital for 92 years. They don't move the seat of government until 1699. The earliest years are surely the worst, the bumpiest. And most folks fixate on about the first 13 to 17 years and they draw from that that there's no way that it could have succeeded. So, yeah, so.
- [02:52]
Don Wildman
And the entity that actually founds it is called the Virginia Company of London, which is chartered under King James I, hence Jamestown. But the existence of this particular enterprise lasts, I guess, from 1607 to 1624. Is that fair?
- [03:07]
Willie Balderson
That's correct. Yeah. The company's dissolved in 1624.
- [03:10]
Don Wildman
Okay, so let's talk about the founding of this. Who's in charge of the Virginia Company?
- [03:15]
Willie Balderson
It is a group of merchants in London, and they have observed for a hundred years the tremendous success that the Spanish, to a lesser extent, in the beginning, the Portuguese have had in exploiting the New World. And they want to get in on the piece of the action. And in 1606, they are able to get King James to sign off on a charter. They have in their minds that the New World in Virginia, the Chesapeake region, is going to be largely the same as what was in Central and South America. And there's going to be gold and silver and medicinal plants, culinary herbs. Everything that the Spanish have had, hopefully, and larger quantity will be found along the mid Atlantic. And so the joint Stock Company is established. They immediately sell shares of stock. Finally, the English are in the game again. And it's like the space race for the world back in the 1950s and 60s. Who can get to the moon first? Who can get to the central part of North America first and establish a colony?
- [04:27]
Don Wildman
Yeah, it would feel that way to these folks after three months in across the ocean, that this is an alien world they're entering into. So they have to set up a comfortable structure for themselves that reminds them of the old days. The first thing that happens is they open these orders when they've arrived. A pivotal moment, as you can imagine. Was it typical of all of these kinds of enterprises with the Spanish and the Dutch and so forth? Did you hold onto these orders until you arrived?
- [04:53]
Willie Balderson
Interesting question. And typically for the Spanish, it was not before they left Spain. Everybody on the ship knew who was going to be in charge and the mechanizations, the mechanisms, and the actual operational causes and effects. And it was very disciplined for the Spanish. Given that this is set up by merchants, it is certainly the intent of the company to have order. But nobody on the ships, as you've noted, will know until they arrive who's going to be in charge. And one of the theories that surrounds that is that some of the gentlemen had perhaps that are coming over had perhaps overextended themselves to the extent that there was a grave concern that if any of the gentlemen on the voyage over knew they would be in charge when they finally arrived, that they might, if for whatever reason, the admiral of the fleet determined that they had to turn back. The concern was that some of these gentlemen might lead a mutiny. So they kept it under lock and key, literally. And it wasn't revealed until they arrived who would be in charge. And it was going to be a council of six gentlemen. And amongst them, these gentlemen would vote on which one of the six the others felt was most qualified to lead.
- [06:28]
Don Wildman
I'm going to run through the names just because I have them written down. Bartholomew Gosnold, Christopher Newport, John Martin, John Ratcliffe, George Kendall and John Smith. The famous John Smith. This was the initial council which they would have read about in these orders, right?
- [06:45]
Willie Balderson
Correct.
- [06:45]
Don Wildman
Interesting. First representative assembly in English North America, isn't it, that convenes in Jamestown.
- [06:52]
Willie Balderson
Well, they would elect one from that six. But the colonists at large, the 104 that arrived, it was only those six gentlemen that would determine, well, five gentlemen, because Captain Smith is not considered a gentleman. He's born into a lower station, a lower class.
- [07:13]
Don Wildman
And what is their mission? What do the orders say to them?
- [07:15]
Willie Balderson
Basically, if you are going to establish yourself in a new world, you want to have discipline. But the driving force is to find some commodity that the company can, in turn, once it is shipped back to England, will be able to sell and turn a profit for the shareholders. It is all based on a company model that we're going to go somewhere, we're going to exploit what we can find and goods are going to be brought back, shareholders are going to be wealthy. That means more shares of stock, more money invested to send more ships, more people, more penetration into the countryside. That was the expectation.
- [07:58]
Don Wildman
It was a way of the Crown also protecting itself, wasn't it? If you create this commercial entity, if it goes wrong, it's their fault and the stockholders are going to lose their money. But it doesn't reflect poorly or cost the Crown any more money.
- [08:09]
Willie Balderson
King James was reluctant to sign off on this company for the fear that the Spanish might feel threatened by it. King James ascends the throne in 1603. And in 1604, a treaty with the Spanish is signed. There were a number of treaties of London that were signed, and they are defined by the year that they're defined, and the Treaty of London in 1604. By that treaty, King James Ceded, that is, surrendered any claim to what is today South America, Central America and North America. Well above the northernmost province of New Spain, which was Florida. Florida. And the other selling point for the company to allow them to get the charter in 1606 was that of all the wealth that the company would find, King James would receive a fifth of it.
- [09:06]
Don Wildman
So he was just a business partner in a way.
- [09:09]
Willie Balderson
Absolutely. That's interesting, albeit silent, at least in the beginning.
- [09:13]
Don Wildman
Yeah. Yeah. The language, as I understand it in these orders, reads to establish one equal and uniform government over all Virginia, providing just laws for the happy, guiding and governing of the people they're inhabiting. Pretty straightforward. So this council of five or six, five gentlemen and one, basically, they're going to make all the rules for the foreseen future. There's no one exactly in charge, there's no president of the council, as I offered earlier.
- [09:41]
Willie Balderson
The expectation is these six gentlemen will determine that one amongst them.
- [09:46]
Don Wildman
Oh, I see.
- [09:47]
Willie Balderson
Is most qualified. And that really is where a large part of the problems for that first year. Right. The first several years.
- [09:58]
Don Wildman
Who do they choose?
- [09:59]
Willie Balderson
A gentleman named Wingfield.
- [10:00]
Don Wildman
Oh, yes.
- [10:01]
Willie Balderson
And he is, by station, probably the most senior. And he has seen some fighting in the Dutch Low countries. The English, first under the table and then very much in the open, have supported the Protestants in the Dutch Low country who've been fighting for independence from Spain. And he has seen action there, and it's believed that he would be most qualified.
- [10:29]
Don Wildman
Is that primarily because of his military prowess? Are they seen as headed for trouble here?
- [10:35]
Willie Balderson
Yes, absolutely.
- [10:37]
Don Wildman
Bluntly, it's going to be a fight.
- [10:39]
Willie Balderson
Yeah. You're reading through the between the lines there.
- [10:43]
Don Wildman
John Smith, such a famous name, obviously, for the Pocahontas legends, really, the myth of John Smith. But he takes the helm on exploring this area and mapping it out. Right.
- [10:54]
Willie Balderson
Right away, almost right away. John Smith, he arrives in sort of a cloud of shame. Smith is born in Lincolnshire against the North Sea. His father is a yeoman farmer who set him up with an apprenticeship to a merchant. And his father, not a year later died. And John Smith, now young. Smith's about 16 years old. He wants to be a soldier with no experience. He crossed the English Channel to join in the Huguenots, the Protestants and their effort to fight against the Catholics in France. And he became very disillusioned. You need to remember, he is not just a Protestant, he is a Puritan. And he takes religion to heart. And he recognized that, as he would write years later, God must surely have looked upon Christians fighting and spilling blood amongst themselves as being a very unholy thing. So after about six months, he came home, he found an aged knight, as he wrote years later, that taught him to properly ride a horse, manage a lance and a sword. And when he's 18, he feels like he's just teeming with the Machiavellian art of war. And he's ready. And he crosses back to Europe and winds up in Romania, serving under A Christian prince to stave the advance of the Turks who are coming into that part of Eastern Europe to take Christians as slaves. He'll serve under this prince, be awarded his captaincy for valor on the field, will be given the command of a company, take part in several sieges before the Turks successfully overwhelm one of the towns. Smith is given the opportunity to become a Turkish slave, which is not a savory thing for any man. Or he can be then indoctrinated and become a Turkish soldier. And he takes door number two. And for two and a half years, he's held in captivity by the Turks. He learns their language, and eventually he's able to escape killing his overseer. And another year and a half, he's across Eastern and Central Europe, and he crosses the English Channel. As he turns 25 years old. Today, we would call Captain Smith. MacGyver, I'm telling you, that is amazing. The gentlemen have none of them have that experience that John Smith has. The burden for Smith is that he is lowborn. And some of the gentlemen call him out. You're not really an English captain because your captaincy was not awarded by an English prince.
- [13:48]
Don Wildman
Was he well known as an adventurer? Before they left for Jamestown, his name.
- [13:53]
Willie Balderson
Had been circulated around London, but he had not published anything that was widely circulated at that point. And he arrives. Many people don't know this. Again, as you've offered, the instructions are sealed until they arrive. Nobody knows. His name is third on the list of six. And when he arrives 26th of April, 1607, they arrive tuck inside the Chesapeake Bay. That night, they open the chest. John Smith is below deck in chains for having spoken ill and most discourteously to one of the other gentlemen. And they had intended, upon arrival of building a scaffold and hanging him.
- [14:40]
Don Wildman
The ultimate twist at the end. They could not have been happy about this and were probably. Yeah, they were probably very happy to set him off into the woods alone and go map this river, right?
- [14:51]
Willie Balderson
So what they do, they all struggle the first summer. And at the end of the summer, John Smith is made what is called the truck master. To truck is to trade. And the expectation is that he's going to go downriver and secure corn and beans and squash. Because the food that had been brought over in the hold of the ship that they had intended to boil, largely, it was barley that they are to boil and then supplement it with the wild game that they would find none of the mariners, the sailors, when they unloaded the ship in the spring, when they first Arrived bothered to tell them that the barrels of barley had shipped over and the whole of the ship that leaked the worst. And for 26 weeks, John Smith would later write, the barrels of barley had soaked up the bilge water, and the sailors brought them ashore, put them in a tent with the sun beating down on them, and when they finally opened them, Smith says famously, there were as many worms as there was grain to our diet. So a large part of that first summer's mortality surrounded bad food and bad water. So Smith is raring to go, having, as they all had, the successful ones recovered from dysentery that first summer, they sent him out to become the truck master. And I'm sure some of the gentlemen were hopeful that he was not going to come back.
- [16:22]
Don Wildman
Yes, exactly.
- [16:23]
Willie Balderson
But he did come back. Yeah, he was successful and he comes.
- [16:26]
Don Wildman
Back and he creates two maps, as I understand, which were sent back to London, but those maps were lost.
- [16:32]
Willie Balderson
He will explore the Chesapeake the following summer, the summer of 1608, and he leaves the fort two times. He's gone seven weeks each time. And that first exploration, he went halfway up the Chesapeake Bay. He dropped down and he went all the way up the Potomac river above what is today Washington, D.C. to the great Falls. And he writes about this great falling of water. He comes back down, he's about to go up the Rappahannock river. And because of low tide, the two ton barge that he's exploring the Chesapeake in grounds, and as they're waiting for the tide to rise, he's out waist deep in water with his sword, fishing as he writes, nailing fish to the ground. And he makes the mistake of jabbing a stingray. And when he's removing it from his sword, the stingray hits him in his wrist. He thinks he's going to die. And through miraculous application of a precious oil, the swelling is assuaged. He eats the fish to his supper, he writes, but swelling is bad. So he returns back to Jamestown, near death experience again. He rests three days and then he sets off again and he goes all the way up on that second voyage, all the way up to the Susquehannock River.
- [17:55]
Don Wildman
Wow.
- [17:56]
Willie Balderson
Explores all of that. Comes Back to Jamestown 7 September 1608. He's using triangulation, he's explored from point to point, point along the bay, copious notes. He'll be elected the president of the council 10-9-1608. And he then basically declares war on the gentleman. It is when he utters the famous quote from 2 Thessalonians those that shall not work shall not eat. And it is directed at the gentlemen who have insisted that because they are gentlemen, their station allows that the other laborers that have been sent over by the company to work for the company are to work for them as well. And he says no, he is going to build what he calls a common wheel, a common wealth, where we'll all work and put into a common store, and then we will equally, except for illness, we will equally take out.
- [18:59]
Don Wildman
That really upsets the general communism pretty much, isn't it? Those maps make it to London, or are they just lost into time?
- [19:07]
Willie Balderson
Smith will send two maps back. One to the company, one to his good friend Henry Hudson.
- [19:15]
Don Wildman
Oh, my goodness.
- [19:16]
Willie Balderson
And we don't know what happened to the Hudson map, the company map that got sent back. We know that somehow a Catholic sympathizer either got their hands on that map or made a tracing of it. Yeah, because this initial map is not nearly as complete as his map of Virginia that it will publish in 1612. This is more of a draft of the James river, largely up to the Rappahannock River. Two rivers.
- [19:47]
Don Wildman
I'm harping on this only because I want to know, did he understand that he was part where they were, was part of this greater continent aside from that, even went further west or not?
- [19:57]
Willie Balderson
Smith, when he's exploring the Chesapeake Bay, will talk to the Susquehannock, Native Americans, hoping that the Susquehannock river will be fed from an ocean that the China Sea, the Pacific Ocean, but it's being fed from the west. And he's really deflated when he discovers that, no, it comes from bodies of water that would be the Great Lakes, but they're fed from the east. And he'll send a scathing letter back to the company in the fall of 1608 telling them there isn't an inland sea. All my reconnoitering is offering that this body of land. He doesn't call it the continent at this point, but it is endless.
- [20:47]
Don Wildman
I'll be back with more American history after this short break. After Dark Myths, Misdeeds, and the Paranormal is a podcast that delves into the dark side of history. Expect murder and conspiracy, ghosts and witches. I'm Anthony Delaney. And I'm Maddy Pelling. We're historians and the hosts of After Dark. From History Hit, where every Monday and Thursday, we enter the shadows of the past, discover the secrets of the darker side of history on After Dark. From History hit. Wherever you get your podcast. Who were these settlers? They were all men at first. How Were they chosen, and how do they operate when they get there?
- [21:43]
Willie Balderson
Think of it, Don, as being broken up into three. Three parts. The gentlemen investors, some of them have enough money and means to come over. So a third were gentlemen, a third were skilled laborers and tradesmen. You know, you're going to find all this gold, you've got to have someone that can make barrels, coopers to make barrels to put all the gold in, and gold refiners and blacksmiths, tailors. Because if you're a gentleman, you got to look good as you're thinking about all that gold. So there's some of these trades that you look at who they were that came over in the first. The first group, and you can't help but smile. So there's only about a third of the 105 that are dispatched from London that are the actual laborers. And they're coming over either as servants to the gentleman, or they've signed on to the Virginia company, understanding that their labor will be worth one share of stock. So that when the pay dirt, when gold is found, they will get at least a share.
- [22:50]
Don Wildman
Yeah, they don't find gold and silver anywhere around that area. But it's not very far away that later on, gold strikes are made in Georgia and Alabama. I mean, it was a reasonable thought that they were going to find it.
- [23:02]
Willie Balderson
Absolutely. Absolutely. They are hoping. And again, they're using the model that the Spanish have found. And the Spanish just were incredibly fortunate, very lucky that they landed around what is today Veracruz, Mexico, and marched inland and they went head on into Montezuma's kingdom.
- [23:23]
Don Wildman
Sure. Well, they found people who had already found the gold.
- [23:25]
Willie Balderson
Yeah, yeah.
- [23:26]
Don Wildman
But that, again, there are societies at this point, we're very well aware nowadays, huge societies that have gone up through the middle of the nation, what we call the United States today, the Cahokia mounds and so forth. I mean, really, they weren't that far away from really big civilizations.
- [23:43]
Willie Balderson
Absolutely. Absolutely not. The burden is you've got the Blue Ridge Mountains and then the Appalachians, and they won't be traversed until the 18th century.
- [23:55]
Don Wildman
Exactly. But had they done what the Spanish had done, brought their armies or whatever, it was a different story.
- [24:01]
Willie Balderson
It could have unfolded without doubt, without doubt. But they really do get bogged down in the mire of the swamps of Jamestown. And it's another curious thing that even with that, they kept the capitol on Jamestown island for 92 years.
- [24:19]
Don Wildman
Yeah. Exactly. How many settlers were there at first? I'm just trying to get a scope of things.
- [24:24]
Willie Balderson
There was 105 men and boys that left London on the voyage over, they don't have enough food. They anticipate the voyage will be 12 weeks, and it takes them four and a half months. So in turn, they discover they've got to find food, and they start stopping at islands and they go ashore on the island of Mona. And one of the gentlemen insists on going ashore because, well, we're now in the realm of New Spain. He's a gentleman. He's had other people to do all the labor for him, but he's going to dig and find the first gold. And he succumbs to probably heat stroke and diesel. So Even though it's 105 that departed London, only 104 arrive at Jamestown. And within two weeks of their arrival, they're attacked by the local Native Americans. Jamestown island wasn't occupied, but one of the local chiefs was using it more or less as a hunting preserve. And these newcomers, outsiders arrive and start cutting down trees and erecting their tents. And certainly they elicit reprisals, shooting his deer and geese. Yeah, 26th of May, they're attacked by somewhere between 200 and 400 Native Americans. 18, they wrote, are wounded. One boy is shot in the leg, perhaps bled out. And so that is what serves as the catalyst for them to build the fort. There will be another 10 or 11, depending on which account you read and embrace before Captain Newport takes two of the three ships back. That's 22nd of June. So if they had 104 when they arrived, then 103, then 10 more, 93. So they got about 93 people when Newport leaves in the middle of June, and by the 10th of September, it was written that they have lost 46 more. That's the first summer. Then by the midst of October, it's 51. So they're well below half now. And this is when John Smith is tapped or volunteers to be the truck master, and he starts trading. And more by intimidation than negotiation, he's successful in getting food.
- [26:55]
Don Wildman
And that's how they make it through that first winter. And even the second one.
- [26:59]
Willie Balderson
That's exactly right. That's exactly right.
- [27:01]
Don Wildman
It's the third one, the famous starving time. Sixteen, nine into ten. Right. That's when things are really bad. Before that, I want to understand, when did the women arrive? 1608. As I understand, first two women will.
- [27:13]
Willie Balderson
Arrive in 1608, a lady and her maidservant, Mistress Forrest. And her maidservant is Ann Burroughs. And within three months, we know that Ann Burroughs is married to One of the first colonists. One of the 1607 colonists and historians often tap this as the paramount success story. We're talking about one person from 1607. There are several, but John Layton, who marries Anne Burrus, they'll have four daughters and they are still around alive into the early 1630s. But make no mistake, Don, they are the exception to the general rule.
- [27:57]
Don Wildman
My God. Lord Bacon, a member of the council for Virginia, states about 1620. This is sometime later, but it's an interesting quote that when a plantation grows to strength, then it is time to plant with women as well as men. That the plantation may spread into generations and not be forever pieced from without. What I find interesting is that which we covered in episode two, which is the beginning of the idea of plantation. The roots of the American South. What goes on straight into the 19th century and beyond is really starting right with Jamestown. This idea of creating this, this agricultural factory, essentially.
- [28:32]
Willie Balderson
Absolutely. A New England writer, John Demas, in a book called the Little Commonwealth, draws that separation between the Pilgrims and Massachusetts Bay being more closely knitted and tied to the idea of the shire system across England where there are towns with central cores commons because of the terrain, the geography. And the further south you go, the mountains move. Further away from the east coast, there's a lot more arable land. And as you have pointed out. Absolutely. It lends itself much more to large plantations that are self reliant, but not groups of people, but a single owner that will have groups of people living on his estate. A plantation.
- [29:27]
Don Wildman
Yeah, I mean it's very natural. It's the straight line you can draw from the feudalism, you know, where you have the town and the market and so forth all the way through to the plantations of the south differs from what happens in the north dramatically. It's a fascinating dichotomy of American culture really. And that which eventually leads to all sorts of trouble. But. But it all kind of has its seeds in this first iteration. In Jamestown you talked about Christopher Newport going back to England, how much back and forth was going on with, with the home country.
- [29:57]
Willie Balderson
Newport brings them over 167. He will not make it back until January of 1608. So they've got basically six months where they're kind of on their own. There are two ships that are dispatched in October of 1607 to supply them. They're separated in a squall down in the Caribbean. So Newport makes it back. He stays until 10 April 1608. The other ship still hasn't arrived. There's a sense that it's lost. He leaves 10th of April and 20th April. Miraculously, the other ship finally gets there. They'll both bring about 70 people. The next supply that Newport will bring will be beginning of October 1608 again about six months later. And they'll bring about another 80 people. And they'll bring back news that for every 10 people that are arriving, when they come back, only three or four still alive. And part and parcel of this is the company recognizing that the idea of the government that they'd established a group of councilmen that would elect one to be the better representative, it's not working. And the other major problem for the company, as they're reading between the lines again, is that most of the gentlemen still have gold fever when they arrive here and they haven't found the gold. The investors are getting restless. And that will serve as the catalyst for a new charter and will allow them to send over a governor that will have absolute control. And his charge will be to settle everything down, declare martial law and make the company a profit. And the company, in early June of 1609, will send over nine ships, almost 500 people, supplies for a year with a governor that is to galvanize things. And they go experience a hurricane on the voyage over. They are forced to throw their supplies overboard to keep the ships afloat. And when they do piecemeal, the ships finally begin to arrive. Seven ships arrive with about 280 people with no supplies. And the one ship that had the government that is to replace John Smith, it doesn't arrive. No one knows. It is miraculously wrecked on the island of Bermuda. And those castaways will spend eight months taking Bermudian cedar and salvaged parts of their flagship, the Sea Venture. And they will build two small ships. They eventually arrive in May of 1610. But meanwhile, back at the fort, John Smith had 60 people alive. He had pressed the regional Native Americans to the breaking point, trying to get food from them. And then seven ships arrived with 280 more people. So Smith is struggling to keep these people alive. He attempts two times to literally pawn off about 100 people on two tribes that had remained friendly. And in both cases, the English basically beat on the native people, making demands after Smith had tried to smooth everything over. And in both cases, he's got to go and retrieve these people. And it's on that second effort, coming back downriver, his gunpowder bag explodes. A terrible accident. Most historians think that it was probably a hit job by some of the gentlemen, but the end result is it incapacitates. Smith to the point where his detractors, many had been offended when he said, those that shall not work, shall not eat the year before, and had gone back to England to complain. They'd come back thinking, now we'll get our revenge on Smith. And they do get their revenge by putting him on a ship out of here.
- [34:25]
Don Wildman
Wow. What happened to him? How was he injured?
- [34:28]
Willie Balderson
He was severely burned. And his account is that the burn was so severe and his clothes were on fire, he was forced to jump into the James river to extinguish the flames. But he had a pretty severe burn on the side of his body, and in that condition, he sent home. And as soon as the local and regional Native Americans learn he's gone, they begin a siege. They don't attack the fort, but anyone that leaves doesn't come back. And at that point, There are about 350 people inside the fort. And that sets the stage for the starving time.
- [35:08]
Don Wildman
Yes, but those first three years are hell on earth for these people. I mean, it's a terrifying experience and leads to real death and destruction. And part of that is also the disease alone, largely due to bad water, right?
- [35:22]
Willie Balderson
Absolutely. When they arrive in 1607, they write that there is sweet water in the James river at low tide. We are 38 miles from the ocean. You've got about another 45, 50 miles to go up the river to get to where the falls are, where Richmond, Virginia, is today. There are creeks just below Richmond that feed at low tide, fresh water. When there's a heavy rainstorm, there's fresh water. But my point, this close to the ocean, you don't get fresh water in the James, excepting when there's been some sort of incredible weather event. And we know what happened. There was a very severe winter to the west of Richmond, probably in the Piedmont, the foothills, all the way to the Blue Ridge Mountains, where they probably had snow after snow after snow. And when that snow started to melt, it really flushed the James river with fresh water, and it made the brackish water at low tide appear sweet. And that was one of the selling points for Jamestown. Their instruction was that you were not to settle less than 100 miles from the ocean, and based on the convenience of the island, that the channel was right against the shore. They felt it was easily defended. There were no natives living on it. Another one of their instructions. And they had fresh water, they believed, at low tide. So when all the ice and snow melted and they had that bad barley that was molded. There's an account from a young man, a privileged man named George Percy. And he'll write a letter to his elder brother that gets back to him in 1608. The letter survives, and he writes that we were destroyed with cruel diseases as swellings, fluxes, burning fevers, and by wars with the naturals. Now, the swellings is probably ingestion of salt water, the flux. It's a wonderful period term for dysentery. Okay, what's wrong with you? I've got the flux.
- [37:44]
Don Wildman
Oh, I like that better than diarrhea, for sure.
- [37:46]
Willie Balderson
Yeah, you got the flux. And the burning fevers are surely malaria or typhus.
- [37:53]
Don Wildman
Combined with a siege in 16, the winter of 16, 0, 9 and 10, that leads to the starvation, which, of course, takes out so many more people. 300 settlers have crowded into the fort when those Native Americans set up that siege. By the time at the end of that winter, they are eating their belts. They're doing anything they can to survive, including cannibalism.
- [38:15]
Willie Balderson
Yes. There are several accounts that are repeated contemporaneously, but the most telling was in the archaeology. Down in the footprint of the 1607 fort at the kitchen, and the remains of a young woman, 14 years old, were recovered. You're never ever supposed to find human remains, bones that have butcher marks on them. And they wrote that it was so severe, they ate the cats and dogs and rats and mice. They ate the horses, their shoe leather. The gentlemen are boiling their ruffs, the fancy collars, and skimming the starch off to make a gruel. And then they wrote that it became so severe that several of the men did dig up a Native American that had been slain several days before. And when you explore something like this and they first state that they have dug up a Native American, you know that there's more to this story. Out of about 350, only 60 survived.
- [39:27]
Don Wildman
80% of the people died by this time.
- [39:30]
Willie Balderson
Yes.
- [39:30]
Don Wildman
How did they handle this psychologically? I mean, one of the aspects of this settlement that's a fascinating thing is that it wasn't a religious settlement. Compare it to Massachusetts Bay Colony, which was a Puritan. It was really intended to create this haven for a certain sort of religious pursuit. Same goes with later with Philadelphia and the Quakers. This was really defined as a commercial pursuit period. So had they built churches? Were they able to find, you know, sanctuary in this process?
- [40:00]
Willie Balderson
At the beginning, there's only one settlement in Virginia, it's Jamestown. By 1609, there was a second settlement that served more as a lookout, and it was at the end of the James River. Where the James river feeds the basin, the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay. And from that vantage point, they could see out into the ocean. And they were. The thought was if they saw Spanish coming, they would be able to send a boat up to Jamestown to warn the garrison there. So during the starving time, there are only two settlements. There's no reference to that second settlement, Fort Algernon, it was called, at the mouth of the bay, having a church. And there is. As the tide turns and the company shifts to that martial law that I alluded to with the arrival of the new government in 1610. A large part of the beginning of that are laws specifically designed to reinforce that the Christian side, God is on our side, but we've got to be reverent toward God aspect of this. Yes, it's very deliberate.
- [41:15]
Don Wildman
Will you mention martial law? What do you mean by that?
- [41:18]
Willie Balderson
The company determined in 1610 that it needed to change course in its governance, and it sent over a governor that would be. That would have absolute control, and he would be the governor general. And they also, at that point, determined they will declare martial law. And the laws as they were codified for good for us, they were actually written out and published and appeared in London. They were read once a week to the residents at Jamestown. And I've got a couple of them here, I'll offer you. There was an emphasis on the respect of God and a tying of the effort that they were doing at Jamestown to a much larger calling for a Protestant God. Number three was that no man shall blaspheme God's holy name upon pain of death, or use unlawful oaths taking the name of God in vain, curse or ban upon pain of severe punishment for the first offense, for the second, to have a bodkin that's a wooden nail thrust through his tongue. And if he continued blaspheming God's holy name for the third time, so offending, he shall be brought to martial court and there receive the censure of death for his offense.
- [42:43]
Don Wildman
Jeez.
- [42:44]
Willie Balderson
Yeah.
- [42:45]
Don Wildman
Extreme measures.
- [42:46]
Willie Balderson
Two others that are really short. He that shall take an oath untruly or bear false witness in any cause or against any man whatsoever shall be punished with death. See, you don't accuse somebody of doing something they didn't do. And even more severe, I think he that draweth his sword upon the court of guard shall suffer death by the arms which he weareth. So if somebody comes into the area where the guard post is and he draws his sword, he could be censured to death for that.
- [43:24]
Don Wildman
Well, you got to run a tight ship when it's. When it's sinking. That's just. Just saying kind of what was happening in those first years, wasn't it?
- [43:31]
Willie Balderson
Yeah.
- [43:34]
Don Wildman
I'll be back with more American history after this short break. Did the Spanish ever come, by the.
- [43:46]
Willie Balderson
Way, they do send one group in 1611. They reckon order. They look around. There is a landing party that's sent ashore. They are immediately taken up, and they request a pilot. There are a lot of shoals at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, and you need a pilot that knows where those shoals are to help inbound ships. And into the early 20th century, you would stop at Norfolk and get a pilot to help you get around the shoals and get up the James River. So it's introduced at the very first effort. But they request a pilot. The pilot goes out to the ship. The folks at Fort Algernon, Captain Davis refuses to let the Spanish captain go back to his ship. And when the sailors on the ship hear this, they turn around, taking the English pilot with them, and go back south to St. Augustine. And this captain, his name is Molina, will remain at Jamestown as a captive until 1616.
- [45:05]
Don Wildman
Wow.
- [45:06]
Willie Balderson
He will smuggle several letters out that get back to London and through Spanish sympathizers, get back to Spain. And they survive in the archives, the Spanish archives in Madrid, to this day.
- [45:24]
Don Wildman
Things stabilize after 1610. There are more people coming in, as you've mentioned, but also they begin to grow tobacco, which is a much more practical crop for what they were doing. I guess they were mostly focused on corn before. I mean, what had been their choice before?
- [45:40]
Willie Balderson
The major food stuff is certainly maize, corn. They realized very early, and I think this is a large part due to Captain John Smith, that what the native people grow is probably going to be the easiest thing for us to grow by default. They. If you read some of the later inventories of seeds that are being brought over in the late 16 teens, they're sending over cabbage seeds and radishes and root crops. But early into the 16 teens, they're dependent largely on what grows the easiest, and by and large, that's corn. They do write that they plant barley and wheat, but beans and gourds and squashes.
- [46:26]
Don Wildman
The last two chapters of this conversation are very related, and I want to be clear about them. John Rolfe, the famous John Rolfe, who is married eventually to Pocahontas, he has been one of those who were shipwrecked at Bermuda. He also is the one that brings the tobacco seeds, I guess, vis a Vis Bermuda. Is that where he gets them? How does he find these seeds?
- [46:47]
Willie Balderson
That's the prevailing thought. Now, there is a tobacco that grows wild in Virginia to this day, and it's the tobacco that the native people grew. The scientific name for it is nicotinea rustica. But it burns the back of the throat. It's very bitter. In the late 17th century, there's an Englishman that said it made him puke. It's not a strong testimony for it, given the quality that everybody speaks of, of the sweet, scented Spanish tobacco. And the challenge with the Spanish tobacco is that it takes a long growing season and a really hot climate. Rolf is believed to have found seed on Bermuda, perhaps a Spanish ship that it wrecked. It's not known. And it has been suggested that. That he perhaps cross pollinated the native tobacco that would grow anywhere with this Spanish tobacco that required a longer growing season and produced a hybridized tobacco that pretty much anyone could grow. And the Virginians, and by default, The Marylanders after 1634, and the Carolinians after the 1650s, 60s, will begin to. To grow this and experiment with this hybridized tobacco, refining it and further refining it and further refining it. And it will create that burgeoning tobacco economy.
- [48:17]
Don Wildman
And this becomes a very, very lucrative cash crop to sell back in England. And thus begins this transatlantic back and forth that happens to create this whole bigger system that eventually needs a larger labor force. And that labor force has been introduced originally by the Spanish down in Mexico and beyond, but that's now taken advantage of by happenstance, really. It's a very famous story about a ship called the San Juan Bautista.
- [48:44]
Willie Balderson
Yes.
- [48:44]
Don Wildman
Can you tell us about that?
- [48:45]
Willie Balderson
Yes. Not to get too deeply into the weeds, Don, because I know I'm capable of doing that, but suffice it to say that there is a Spanish slave ship that is bound from the west coast of Africa to Veracruz, Mexico, and two English ships that are flying flags that have been given to them by the Dutch. The Dutch are at war, have been at war for their independence with the Spanish. And there are a number of English merchant gentlemen that have made a lot of money on the side leasing ships and crews to the Dutch. The Dutch, in turn, give them flags. And so it is no longer an English ship, it is a Dutch ship. And there is the rub, as Mr. Shakespeare so aptly put it. The ships approach the San Juan Baptista, they attack it. We know that from the Spanish ship captain's report, they were flying Dutch flags, but the crew spoke English. It's kind of a tell and they took 60 of the enslaved Africans off, apparently dividing them up between these two ships. And both ships made for the closest English port, which was in the James River.
- [50:19]
Don Wildman
Hmm. So you're saying privateers. Pirates in quotation marks. English privateers, yes. Seized this group of. They were called indentured servants in those days, weren't they?
- [50:32]
Willie Balderson
Well, they. The Spanish are heavily invested in the slave trade.
- [50:38]
Don Wildman
Okay.
- [50:38]
Willie Balderson
No, no, no, no. No mistaking that. And these are Africans that have been. And it's hard to say this. It's hard to hear it. They've been captured from their own native country and their own native provinces. They've been put on Spanish slave ships in a most cruel way, an inhumane way. Packed in the hold of the ships, brought over with the intent that they're going to wind up on the islands of. On the mainland in lead mines. And they are attacked in the Caribbean.
- [51:16]
Don Wildman
Right.
- [51:17]
Willie Balderson
So they're taken off of a Spanish slave ship as enslaved. Enslaved people.
- [51:24]
Don Wildman
And this is famously. Because we've skipped over a lot of years here. We're now 16, 19. This is the famous beginning of the American enslavement. That is the 400 years of enslavement in America. This is that beginning. Beginning. I'm just wanting to underscore the fact that this was not necessarily a system at this point. As far as. Let's procure this. This has just sort of happened. The original deal was, we'll give you these people for food. As I understand. Right. This is a barter situation.
- [51:54]
Willie Balderson
All that they had was what they needed were victuals.
- [51:57]
Don Wildman
Yeah. And this system, which was a system, had been going on for 100 years already down in Central and South America areas in the span. In New Spain.
- [52:08]
Willie Balderson
Yes, yes.
- [52:09]
Don Wildman
But I also say this was welcome because they had this new cash crop that they could grow a lot more of with a larger labor force. Thus, these enslaved were taken in and became part of the Jamestown world.
- [52:21]
Willie Balderson
Absolutely. And it's difficult, Don. It's very, very difficult to go back and visit this and hear this.
- [52:28]
Don Wildman
Sure. I mean, it's the beginning of a horror show that eventually ends up in the American Civil War 230 years later. And it starts. Starts in Jamestown. But circumstances are a little more complicated than it's usually given credit for.
- [52:40]
Willie Balderson
Yes. The evolution from these individuals being taken as servants. They've been taken off of a Spanish slave ship. There would be no reason for the English to look at them any other way than what they were. The deliberateness with which the account is written is telling. In that it doesn't say anything about the condition that they will be subjected to when they arrive.
- [53:15]
Don Wildman
Yep. So many seeds are planted here, you know, the seeds of the Virginia colony soon to come in the timeline, but also the seeds of how this southern way of life will really propagate. And part of that, if you're going to use this feudal system that's been brought over from England, then you need a servant class, you need a, an enslaved class in this case. And that becomes a very good way to make a profit down the road. I'm not putting that on Jamestown necessarily, although that is the beginning of things. But you're right, this becomes a very, very convenient way to make a lot of money.
- [53:46]
Willie Balderson
There is a renowned Virginia historian, Warren Billings, and he researched for many years the evolution of the slave society. And it dawned on me when you mentioned the feudal society in England. He came up with an idea of the law of custom. It is what we have always done. And when you have 3,000 miles of ocean separating you from any empirical authority, many things can get lost, dropped or neglected in that transmission. And so very quickly there are laws that are created that set dark skinned people, be they from Africa or native people, apart from their general society. And if we've always done that and then we've always done this, and then we always done this, suddenly there is this momentum and it becomes codified.
- [54:55]
Don Wildman
In our next episode, we will be covering the downfall of James Downer, or at least the transition, as you corrected me at the beginning, that many people don't understand. So we'll get to that. But I just want to cap this off by explaining where you come from, Willie, and where people can find out more about what we just talked about.
- [55:12]
Willie Balderson
Well, I have the honor and the pleasure to work on Jamestown island for the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation. I serve as the director of living History and Historic trades and we have been excavating the actual site of the first fort, first permanent English settlement. This year marks the 31st year, April 4, 1994. The excavation began in the hopes that we might find something that had survived at the fort. There was a popular belief that the site of the fort had eroded away into the river with a known quantity of land on the riverside of the island, at least 25 acres. And miraculously, 87% of the footprint of the fort survives.
- [56:04]
Don Wildman
Wow.
- [56:04]
Willie Balderson
But we've been only excavating it for the last now 31 years.
- [56:09]
Don Wildman
Amazing. That's the rediscovery of Jamestown. That's literally the name, isn't it?
- [56:12]
Willie Balderson
Yes. Yes. Go to our website, which is historic Jamestown, and you'll see a dropdown there, historicjamestown.org but we have one more episode.
- [56:22]
Don Wildman
To do, and we'll cover the last part of the Jamestown story. Thank you, Willie Baldston. We'll talk to you soon.
- [56:28]
Willie Balderson
Thank you so much, Doug.
- [56:31]
Don Wildman
Hey, thanks for listening to American History hit. You know, every week we release new episodes, two new episodes dropping Mondays and Thursdays, all kinds of content from mysterious missing colonies to powerful political movements to some of the biggest battles across the centuries. Don't miss an episode by hitting like and follow. You help us out, which is great, but you'll also be reminded when our shows are on. And while you're at it, share it with a friend. American History hit with me, Don Wildman, so grateful for your support.
- [57:21]
Willie Balderson
Sa.